Dragon's Heart: An Inquisition Story
by ChromaticStasis
Summary: Of course Terra got iinto this mess. She always gets herself into these messes. Not a month goes by, some weird crap doesn't happen to her. Rated M for future chapters.


**A/N: Welcome to my story! In a fit of insomnia, I decided to write this fanfic. I'm not sure it'll go anywhere, but anyway, I do hope you enjoy it. I've been playing Dragon Age games again, and my characters seem to always have a special place for ex-Templars. Without further ado, let's begin.**

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What a headache. First, she was in the Fade, and now she was in a prison. Then, there's that glowing, green whatever-it-is on her hand. Right, because mysterious, glowy bits just appearing after a physical trip into the fade are always a _good_ thing. She sighed irritably, staring straight ahead with a scowl affixed to her features.

The human female ignored the forceful questioning of the two women who, after a few back-and-forth glares and a stubborn silence, seemed to be bickering amongst themselves. Typical.

Wait, did they just say something about a hole? In the sky?

Wasn't the sky the things that holes showed?

She started to pay attention, but when the short-haired, angry Nevarran woman started spitting accusations, Terra snorted. "You think I did that? A hole in the bloody sky?" She laughed mirthlessly, mockingly.

"Explain this," the Seeker gripped Terra's arm and forced it palm-up. The green light fizzled and spat. Terra's scowl returned, her tone dangerous and measured. "I can't." 

"What do you mean, you 'can't'?!" The Nevarran woman began to lunge at Terra, who met her with a glower as the woman in a cowl guided her apparent colleague backward.

"We need her alive, Cassandra."

More bickering. More nonsense. Terra rolled her eyes. Before she could lose interest completely, she was being hauled to her feet and escorted outside, hands still bound in front of her.

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She'd tried to take her daggers and intended for her to be defenseless in this hellscape that once held the Temple of Sacred Ashes. Then, she forced her to fight alongside her against these abominations and demons. They assisted some of her acquaintances and then the bald elf forced her to shut the miniature sky hole with a wave of her own hand. _I didn't do anything,_ he'd said. Great. He's going to be a fun one to talk to.

The smartass dwarf, on the other hand, she would definitely have a drink with later. At least he sees how absurd this whole thing is. Honestly, look at the sky. It really does have a big tear in it. Pouring creatures out of it like it's it's job or something.

They traipsed along the icy ground and somehow, none of them slipped and broke their necks. Some stuffed shirt with a stupid hat tried to bellow at her, too, and after all of that, they asked her, the one accused of opening that damn sky hole in the first damn place, what _she_ wanted to do. Since when did _that_ matter? Well, her choices were scouts or soldiers, and given the state of these abominations she's seen so far, soldiers seemed like a solid bet.

Plus it disappointed the elf, so bonus.

Rift after rift, they closed on the way to the battlefield where the men and women were fighting desperately. Those who saw her wiggle her fingers and make the miniature sky holes disappear were puzzled, amazed, horrified, and relieved; some, all at once.

Terra had gone about cleaning her blades haphazardly on her scarf when the Templar ran up on the group. He and Cassandra knew each other, clearly, and then he tried to introduce himself by making some snide remark about her guilt.

Terra deadpanned at him and curled a lip in disgust. He's pretty, sounds sexy as hell, _and_ he's judgmental to boot. Because of course he is. Why should he act any differently than the rest?

Truth was, after seeing everything here, Terra was starting to get it. Okay, they're scared and desperate. They need someone to blame. But, she didn't do it.

... she didn't think she did it, anyway. WHy was her memory so fuzzy? She scratched the back of her head absently, as if trying to break away some crud on her memories.

The soldiers picked up and moved on, the commander helping a limping man up the trail. So he's helpful now, too. Terra grit her teeth. _Don't do it,_ she warned herself against her admittedly intense attraction, though she couldn't stop the errant mental image here or there from pushing into her mind. She shoved her daggers into their scabbards and stomped forward after the soldiers, following to the breach.

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Was that _her_ voice coming out of that magical whatsits? She peered at it mistrustfully. "What's going on,, here?" she heard herself ask in an uncharacteristically concerned, almost sweet tone.

"Hey!" She pointed a dagger at the light patterns. "Why am I talking out that!?" The question was rhetorical.

"You _were_ there!" Cassandra exclaimed. "Most Holy called out to you!" Terra snapped her head around to send a biting retort, but it died on her snarl when she saw that Cassandra's expression was one of shock, that quickly morphed to belief of her noninvolvement.

In the middle of the confusion, Terra ripped open the rift, then prepared to heal the scar in the air. It took a few tries, and a hell of a fight with some bigass Pride demon, but they got around to it, and the whole damn valley seemed to explode, leveling Terra flat on her back.

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When she awoke, _again_, there was some simpering elf girl dropping a box of elfroot on her floor. She cowered, and told her to meet the Seeker in the Chantry.

Damn Chantry. Always thought she'd burst into flames just setting foot into one.

She looked down after the elf girl left, and took stock. It looked like she still had all of her parts in working order. Arms, legs, fingers, toes. Yep. And for some damn reason, she was wearing different clothes than when she was fighting in the valley. The tips of her ears burned. Somebody undressed her without her consent. But, she supposed wearing blood-soaked clothes to bed would prove just as unpleasant. She'd let it slide.

When she walked out the door, she saw people lining the street. Before she had time to wonder what they were all standing around for, a murmur rushed through the crowd. She thought she heard 'the Herald,' and 'Andraste's Chosen.' Well, whatever. SHe set a grim expression so no one would bother her, and set to work, making her way toward the large, obvious building at the top of the hill in town. The eyes of a bunch of people were on her, and it felt different from when they were glaring daggers into her skin. Was that, awe? SHe shook her head and shut her eyes, sighing heavily.

Heaving the Chantry doors open was no small task. She wasn't injured, but she felt like she'd been asleep for days. Her grip wasn't quite all there, and she hadn't had her morning pick-me-up. She strode right toward where she expected she needed to be: Where the shouting was.

Sure enough, the Seeker, the Sister, and the Chancellor all were in another pissing contest over what should happen to her. "Hey, I'm standing right here," she mused grumpily.

"Guards, take this woman into custody. She's wanted for conspiracy to murder Divine Justinia."

"Disregard that order, and leave us alone." Not surprisingly, the soldiers listened to Cassandra, and not this windbag. Terra regarded Cassandra carefully, watching as she slammed a book with a hairy eyeball down onto the war table and do everything except jam her finger into the man's sternum, making some point about how they don't answer to him.

Maybe she can get along with these people.

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**A/N: I know, it's sort of a setup chapter. I plan on writing more, a lot further into the game than I have here, but I wanted to introduce Terra's thought process and demeanor. I know I rated it M and gave you, in this chapter, PG-13 at best. Sorry about that. I will be making more content for this that will have more MA theme to it... provided I don't completely lose interest and get writer's block... anyway, thank you for reading. :)**


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